1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a file management program, a computer-readable recording medium on which the file management program is recorded, and a file management method, and more particularly, to a file management program, a computer-readable recording medium on which the file management program is recorded, and a file management method that can combine multiple files into a single file and that can perform file history and variation management.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional art, a graphical user interface (hereinafter ‘GUI’) has been incorporated into personal computers in order to improve convenience of operation. A GUI displays as thumbnails, which are reduced-size images, images that become available when the data for image files or document files is opened, and allow the user to easily recognize the content of the file. In addition, multiple files created using different applications, such as image files and document files, are associated with each another (this type of processing is called ‘virtual combination’), and are displayed as a virtual single file using a thumbnail. In this case, the multiple files are sequentially displayed on the thumbnail screen via page-forwarding.
Where a reference material is created using a computer, multiple documents are usually revised and saved two or more times, and each completed document is assembled. Because multiple versions are created for each file before the document is finally completed in this fashion, history management must be performed. In addition, in the situation in which the same invoice is sent to multiple companies, multiple documents (variations) which are the same text but different addressees may be prepared.
However, while the conventional virtual combination has the function of combining multiple document files, it does not have the function of managing the history or the variations of each document file. In other words, where a document has been revised, for example, because the file name stays the same before and after the revision, the old file is overwritten and is deleted. Consequently, the user must separately manage the file history or variations, which is troublesome for the user.